Saturday, May 28, 2016

The poor in Nigeria are being denuded of all subsidies that subside
their existential pains. This year, it started with petrol, then moved to
fertilizer. We don’t know what is next. But I think it’s time we changed the
conversation. Let’s turn our gaze to the walloping subsidies that pay for the hedonism
of Nigeria’s notoriously self-indulgent elite, shall we?

We are told that subsidies for the poor have to go because
Nigeria is broke and because the administration of subsidies is riddled with
corruption. (And I thought the reason President Buhari was elected—and former
President Jonathan was rejected at the polls— was because Buhari vowed to fight
corruption so that it doesn’t interfere with the dispensation of help to people
who need it).

Well, if Nigeria is broke why is the construction of a helipad
in Daura one of President Buhari’s major projects? No one seems to know
precisely how much it would cost to build it (estimates vary from N2 million to
tens of millions of naira), but what we do know so far is that N60 million has
already been paid as compensation to people whose land will be used for the
project, according to the Daily Trust of September 21, 2015 .

Given that the helipad will become useless the moment
Buhari’s tenure expires, this doesn’t strike me as a wise investment during
this difficult financial time when the poor are stripped of subsidies and called
upon to “sacrifice.”

Let’s not even talk of the presidential air fleet that
needlessly and avoidably drains our national resources. According to a November
17, 2015 statement from the presidency, there are currently 10 aircraft in the presidential
fleet, and they cost the nation more than 2 billion naira to maintain in just 6
months.

America, which is way wealthier than Nigeria and which gives
all manner of subsidies to its poor, has only two aircraft in
its presidential fleet. The British Prime Minister has no dedicated fleet of
aircraft. It was announced only last year that a plane would be bought for the Prime Minister at the
cost of $15 million. That’s about how much it cost to maintain Nigeria’s
presidential fleet between May and November last year, according to the
presidency.

In the new budget President Buhari just signed, nearly 4
billion naira has been allocated for “annual routine maintenance of villa
facilities by [Julius Berger Nigeria].” The medical center in the Villa will be
maintained with N3.89 billion. But this excludes drugs. Within this budget
year, more than N200 million has been allocated to buy drugs for the State
House clinic. Never mind that the president actually goes to London for his
medical needs.

In February this year when he went to London for a routine
medical check-up, he told Nigerians in the UK that he had been using his UK
doctors “since 1978 when I was in Petroleum.” So over 4 billion naira has been allocated
for a medical facility in the presidential villa that the president may not
even use, yet the poor are told to “sacrifice” because the country is “broke.”

But that’s not all. N387 million has been budgeted for “general
renovation of the guest house” in the presidential villa, N254million for “renovation
work on 8 No. Blocks of 16 No. 2 bedroom flats at State House security quarters,
Asokoro,” N115 for “wildlife conservation,” N322,421,971 to link cable to the
“driver’s rest room at Villa Admin,” N213,873,953 to link cable “from Guest
House No. 9 Generator House to gate,” N114,967,140 for the President’s “food
stuff/catering materials supplies,” N16,683,193 for the Vice President’s “food
stuff/catering materials supplies,” etc.
There are many more puzzlingly wasteful expenditures that I have no space to highlight
here. (Follow this link to read the budget for yourself.

Now compare this to America, the world’s wealthiest nation.
American presidents pay for their own food from their pocket. As Gary Walters,
a former White House Chief of Staff, told the (London) Guardian, “All those things that are personal in nature that we all
pay for, the first family pays for.”

“It’s just the tradition that it’s continued on through time
that the president will pay for their own food and, I guess, if they needed
something for the house that was personal. Toothpaste, cologne or whatever,” William
Bushong, a White House historian, told the Guardian.

Wife of President Ronald Reagan was shocked when she
discovered that she and her husband had to pay for all of their personal needs.
“Nobody had told us that the president and his wife are charged for every meal,
as well as for such incidentals as dry cleaning, toothpaste and other
toiletries,” she was reported to have said in 1981, according to the Guardian.

If the world’s wealthiest country doesn’t subsidize the
personal expenditures of its first families, why do Nigerian budgets earmark
billions for the convenience of the first family but talk of “sacrifice” and
being “broke” when it comes to giving subsidies to the poor?

The Presidency isn’t the only usurper of subsidies, of
course. The crooked and ineffectual National Assembly got a lump sum of N115
Billion in the current budget. There is no breakdown on how this money will be
spent.

A recent Daily Trust investigation also showed that “State governments are spending
billions on luxury cars for members of their House of Assemblies” even though
several of them haven’t paid salaries to their workers for nearly a year. And we
learned that Buhari caved in to petrol price increase because of the pressure
that was brought to bear on him by state governors who want more money to steal.

Private sector operators (the second layer of my concentric circle) get their own subsidies, too. Apart from the oil cartel that
perennially swindles Nigeria with impunity, a recent Senate investigation has uncovered a N447 billion import waiver scam to
private sector fat cats from 2011 to 2015. It's just a tip of the iceberg.

Nigeria’s subsidy regime is a classic case of taking coals
to Newcastle, that is, giving assistance to people who don't need it and
depriving it of people who desperately need it to survive. But I know there are
many poor and not so poor Nigerians who will die defending the subsidies for
the rich and opposing subsidies for the poor. Such people deserve our pity.

But let’s say this: If members of the Nigeria political
class are serious about “sacrificing,” in light of the fact that the country is
“broke,” let’s get rid of everyone’s subsidies. It was Mahatma Gandhi who once
said, “The world has enough for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's
greed.” We are broke not because of the need of the poor but because of the
greed of the rich.

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About Me

Dr. Farooq Kperogi is a professor, journalist, newspaper columnist, author, and blogger based in Greater Atlanta, USA. He received his Ph.D. in communication from Georgia State University's Department of Communication where he taught journalism for 5 years and won the top Ph.D. student prize called the "Outstanding Academic Achievement in Graduate Studies Award." He earned his Master of Science degree in communication (with a minor in English) from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and won the Outstanding Master's Student in Communication Award.

He earned his B.A. in Mass Communication (with minors in English and Political Science) from Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria, where he won the Nigerian Television Authority Prize for the Best Graduating Student.

Dr. Kperogi worked as a reporter and news editor, as a researcher/speech writer at the (Nigerian) President's office, and as a journalism lecturer at Kaduna Polytechnic and Ahmadu Bello University before relocating to the United States.

He was the Managing Editor of the Atlanta Review of Journalism History, a refereed academic journal. He was also Associate Director of Research at Georgia State University's Center for International Media Education (CIME).

He is currently an Associate Professor of Journalism and Emerging Media at the School of Communication and Media, Kennesaw State University, Georgia's fastest-growing and third largest university. (Kennesaw is a suburb of Atlanta). He also writes two weekly newspaper columns: "Notes From Atlanta" in the Abuja-based DailyTrust on Saturday (formerly Weekly Trust) and "Politics of Grammar" in the DailyTrust on Sunday (formerly Sunday Trust).

In April 2014 Dr. Kperogi was honored as the Outstanding Alumnus of the University of Louisiana's Department of Communication. His research has also won international awards, such as the 2016 Top-Rated Research Paper Award at the 17th Symposium on Online Journalism at the University of Texas, Austin, USA.